Sunday, October 20, 2013

Movie Review: 'Escape Plan'

If two stars ever needed a second chance at a comeback this year, it
is definitely Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Stallone’s Bullet to the Head made a mere $9 million domestically while Arnie’s The Last Stand
only made $37 million worldwide against its $45 million budget.
Considering these two used to be two of the top stars in the ’80s and
’90s, they definitely needed something to get their juices flowing at
the box office. Seeing how Arnie made appearances in both Expendables films, it should come as no surprise to see them joining forces yet again in this weekend’s Escape Plan.

In Escape Plan,
Ray Breslin (Stallone) makes his living escaping from federal prisons
for the security firm he runs with his partner, Lester Clark (Vincent
D’Onofrio). After having just escaped from a Colorado prison, CIA lawyer
Jessica Miller (Caitriona Balfe), offers Breslin $5 million to break
out of a top-secret, privately funded prison. His associates Abigail
Ross (Amy Ryan) and Hush (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) don’t like the idea,
but sure enough, Breslin is swept away to his new home inside “The
Tomb,” run by Warden Willard Hobbs (Jim Caviezel). Now, Breslin must
team up with fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger) to figure out
how to escape from the prison Hobbs designed based on the book that
Breslin literally wrote.

Escape Plan just may wind up being one of the year’s most
unnecessarily convoluted. Screenwriters Miles Chapman and Jason Keller
spend so much time in the final scenes tying up loose ends that you
forget where they came from. And for being marketed as an action film,
there really isn’t too much action until we get to the end. It plays out
more like a detective thriller with the Italian Stallion figuring out
how to make his great escape. The “Governator” seems to be relishing
another return to the big screen, making sure all of his one-liners are
as hilarious as they used to be back in the golden days.

Stallone even makes Breslin one of his more likeable characters. He
was never my favorite action star but he works very well playing off of
Schwarzenegger. The only person who sticks out is Caviezel, who sucks
the life out of every scene he’s in. Even Sam Neill, playing the doctor
with a heart of gold, seems more natural to the story. Maybe if Caviezel
had played Hobbs as more of an eccentric he would’ve worked, but I
think we all know that kind of portrayal is out of his range. As it
stands, director Mikael Håfström delivers the over-the-top action we
want when the finale finally kicks in. With a running time of 116
minutes, I feared it would be way too long, but the pace manages to fly
by. Escape Plan is a welcome return to form for both Stallone and Schwarzenegger.